AEGiS-UPI: Prisons hit by rising AIDS costs

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1997. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Prisons hit by rising AIDS costs

United Press International; Monday November 3, 1997 - 9:11 AM EST

CHICAGO, Nov. 3 (UPI) _ A published report says medical costs have soared in Illinois prisons in the last year as hundreds of inmates have been treated for AIDS with a combination of drugs to fight the disease, the leading cause of death behind bars.

Prison officials told the Chicago Sun-Times today that the cost of AIDS drugs has jumped from $30,000 a month to $300,000 a month over the last couple of years.

The state's prisons have 633 inmates who are known to carry the AIDS virus.

In 1994, Illinois taxpayers spent $600,000 annually to buy AIDS drugs for prisoners. This year, the state spent that amount in just two months.

Illinois prisons spend between $8 million and $9 million annually filling prescriptions for prisoners. A prison spokesman was unable to give the Sun-Times an exact figure, he said, because the exact figure is "buried in various contracts."

State Rep. Cal Skinner, R-Crystal Lake, was not surprised by the figures.

Skinner told the newspaper, "Why should anybody be surprised that the Department of Corrections has high costs for the treatment of HIV when the department... has done nothing significant to stop it?"

Skinner said most prisoners crave sex and drugs when released from prison, both primary modes of transmission, and is worried inmates will spread the HIV virus into their communities upon release.

Skinner suspects that many more of the 38,000 Illinois prisoners than the 633 known AIDS victims carry the human immunodeficiency virus and is calling for mandatory testing so the state can segregate and treat prisoners infected with the deadly virus.

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